


Make a Shadow

by inourtownofpanem



Series: Erin Steinbeck Series [2]
Category: Fear the Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-13
Updated: 2018-01-24
Packaged: 2019-02-14 08:27:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13003785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inourtownofpanem/pseuds/inourtownofpanem
Summary: Erin Steinbeck survived Los Angeles, but now the harder part comes along - living with the consequences of the choices she made back home. And it's changed her. Gone is the kind and caring Erin who would die for her friends and she's been replaced by the cold hearted and sarcastic killer, who only seems to care about killing every infected she sees.But even with all these changes; it's driving a hard line between her best friend and her boyfriend. While Alicia wants her best friend back, Nick seemingly falls even more in love with the crazy killer his girlfriend has become.Under the shell Erin placed around herself, she's a scared and a very vulnerable woman who still hasn't found a way to adjust herself into the new reality. While everyone is fighting a war against the infected, Erin is fighting her own war against herself. She hasn't quite recovered from the things she had to live through back in Los Angeles, and it's starting to take its toll on not just her, but everyone else around her.





	1. Chapter 1

The firebombs dropped across Los Angeles ignited the skies in an orange haze, staining the dark sea in a carpet of fire. There was barely enough time to fully take in what was happening since the whole group were all rushed towards the beach to begin moving their belongings onto Abigail. Strand had already gotten onto a Zodiac inflatable boat towards Abigail with Nick, Alicia, Ofelia and Daniel on board, leaving Chris, Erin, Travis and Madison back on the shore with their belongings.

Just as everything was ready, infected started making their way onto the beach, the group quickly picking up stones and sticks to defend themselves but Erin held them back. "Go, I'll hold them off," Erin told Madison as she handed over her backpack and weapons – apart from her katana.

Travis placed his arm in front of Erin, stopping her from going anywhere. "Erin, this is not the time to be a hero! This isn't a goddamn video game!"

Erin glared at Travis, the fire burning inside her eyes on full display. "How do you think I survived in the city without you or anyone to help me, huh? I did just that – survive. Now go, and hurry up." She watched Madison and Travis go back to loading up the boat before she turned back towards the infected, removing her katana from its sheath and let out a loud battle cry before sprinting towards the infected. Using her katana, she slashed the infected's throats, kicking them away as they went down before moving onto another.

Once all infected that surrounded the group lay at Erin's feet, she blew away a strand of hair that got in her way before turning back towards the group, all of whom had their mouths dropped open. "What?"

The group said nothing as they watched Erin place her katana back into its sheath as Nick returned with the Zodiac boat, quickly ushering everyone on board with their belongings before returning back to the Abigail. Once they were all on board the Abigail, they began their long journey into the unknown.

Erin sat down on one of the chairs, her knees tightly against her chest. Nick sat down beside her, and she rested her head on his shoulder and smiled softly as she felt him press a kiss to her forehead.

"I saw you on the beach, when did you become such a badass?" Nick murmured in her ear, his arms wrapping around Erin's body.

Erin smiled a little, leaning into Nick's embrace. "I've always been a badass, only now have I had the opportunity to show off my skills."

The next morning, Erin was sat down on one of the couches inside and watched everyone around her as she cleaned her sword and sharpened it, making sure that it was always ready to use to attack anyone and everyone who got in her way. After she was satisfied with her sword, she moved onto her knife and began cleaning and sharpening that too.

"Can I help you with that?" A voice asked, the space beside Erin sinking down with the weight of someone sitting beside her. Instead of her best friend like Erin had hoped, it turned out to be Chris.

"Va te faire enculer," Erin grumbled under her breath, not bothering to look up from her knife.

"Huh?"

"I said 'go fuck yourself', Chris." Erin finally looked up at Chris to give him a cold glare before going back to her knife.

Chris sighed, rubbing his temple with his fingers. "Erin, you need to stop speaking in French, nobody on this boat can understand you."

"J'ai parlé français avant de parler anglais, le français est ma langue maternelle," Erin hissed out before rolling her eyes. "I spoke French before I spoke English, French is my mother tongue."

Erin sighed, handing her knife over to Chris before picking up her sword once again. "Y'know, I used to think of myself one way, but after this... I am something else. I'm still me, I think. But, that's not what everyone else thinks. Everyone sees me as the monster, but I'm nothing close to one. But you know what they say; not all monsters to monstrous things."

Chris frowned, sharpening Erin's blade. "Why would you be seen as a monster?"

Erin shrugged her shoulders, her eyes never meeting Chris's. "I slit a man's throat and watched him die with the knife you're holding, I've done some pretty fucked up things to get myself here and if that isn't the archetype of a monster, I don't know what is."

Before Chris had a chance to reply, Erin watched Nick walk outside and after placing her sword back with Chris, she walked after him and stood behind him. "Did you mean it?"

Nick frowned, turning towards Erin. "Mean what?"

"When you said "I love you" back in LA, did you mean it?"

"Erin I-"

"Answer the fucking question, Nick. Did you or did you not mean what you said to me?"

"Who's ready for dinner?" Madison called from inside, causing Erin to force back a scream of "fuck off" and place on her best smile to pretend everything was okay.

"This isn't over, Clark. You got let off, but next time you better answer the fucking question." Erin snapped as she folded her arms over her chest and stormed back inside. She sat down at the table beside Alicia and pretended everything was okay, with a huge smile on her face, it looked like everything was okay but in Erin's world – nothing was ever just okay.

She heard the splash from outside, quickly noticing that Chris was missing. Her smile dropped as she walked back outside, just to see Nick dive into the sea after him. She sighed as she watched the pair swimming together, shaking her head as she moved to sit down on the steps, tucking stray pieces of hair behind her ear.

The sound of the infected made her stand up, instantly fearing for Nick's safety. She waited for those few tense minutes until she saw Nick walk back onto the boat, Erin instantly wrapping her arms around his soaking body. "Don't you dare do that to me again, Clark. You scared the fuck out of me."

"Don't start celebrating yet, Erin. Whoever did that to the other boat, they're coming back."

 

**_Note_ **

First chapter of Make a Shadow is done! Hope you guys enjoyed it – this story will have a slightly darker tone than Love Me to Pieces had but it's a zombie apocalypse so what did you expect?


	2. Chapter 2

Erin was lying in Nick's bed, lounging around in one of his shirts and her underwear as she waited for him to return from his shower, listening to Madison shouting at him and chuckling quietly to herself as she listened. "Oh shit," she muttered as she heard Nick and Madison enter the room, Erin deciding to hide under the covers in an attempt to hide the fact that she was in his room.

"Erin, I know you're there so don't even bother trying to hide." Madison sighed, leaning against a locker as she watched Erin pull back the covers. "Can you give us a minute?"

Erin rolled her eyes, moving the covers completely off her body before jumping off the bunk bed and walking out of the room, going back to the room she shared with Alicia. Erin's relationship with Nick was rocky to say the least, but they were normal teenagers who went from being at each other's throats and giving each other the silent treatment to not being able to leave each other alone and would spend every second being together.

Her relationship with Alicia was no better; they might share a bedroom but lately, that was all that they had in common. What had happened in LA was on both of their minds and it clearly wasn't going away, and not talking about it to each other seemingly only made it worse.

Erin collapsed onto her bed face first and lay there for several moments before moving to lie on her back, staring up at the ceiling. "Do you think I've changed?" She asked, not looking at Alicia.

Alicia stopped folding her clothes to frown, her eyebrows fusing together at Erin's words. "What do you mean?"

Erin licked her lips as she turned to her side, facing Alicia. "I mean, two weeks ago, we were talking about the collage we were making for the yearbook and wishing death on our head teacher... now it's like every little thing we do is life or death."

Alicia dropped the clothes on her bed to lie beside her best friend. "Maybe we have changed, but maybe that's not such a bad thing. We've all had to adapt to survive, if our fight or flight mode hadn't kicked in, maybe we would still be in LA."

The pair continued to talk until nightfall, and in truth it was the longest conversation they'd had since leaving LA. During that conversation, Erin felt like her old self, but she knew that feeling wouldn't last; those feelings never truly did, after all. There was no true escape from what she was; a murderer – a cold-hearted killer and there was no escaping from the truth.

Once the Abigail docked, both girls followed after Madison and Travis, Erin hanging back to keep a lookout if anyone or anything came towards them. Travis had requested her not to take any form of weapons, but she ignored him and brought her knife with her just to be safe.

Outside the home, nobody was talking apart from Travis – causing Erin take a step backwards, ready to run at any given moment if this went south.

"You have nothing to fear from us." Travis announced; trying to see if there were any lights to show that there was anyone there.

Erin almost laughed at Travis's words, her hand holding onto her knife tightly; ready to be used at any given moment. They might have nothing to fear from the group as a whole, but they surely had something to fear from Erin.

The front door opened, causing Erin to bring her knife forwards to strike but stopped when she saw that it was a child – an uninfected child. Realizing that the child wasn't infected, Erin brought her knife down and placed it back into her jeans.

After a brief conversation, the group walked inside the home and Erin took a seat on the couch, saying nothing as she watched everyone around her. Until she laid eyes upon the eldest son, causing her to nudge Alicia's arm with her elbow, a small smile on her face. "We got ourselves a major cutie on our hands," she whispered into her ear, her hand covering her lips.

Alicia shook her head as she laughed softly, looking towards him for a moment before turning back to her friend. "Well, he's all yours; I won't stop you from taking him."

Erin shook her head, laughing softly. "I got Nick, I think I'm good."

Her smile dropped almost immediately as she watched the daughter – Willa – play with her doll, singing Ring a Ring o' Roses as she slowly walked around in circles around the centre of the room.

She quietly excused herself to the bathroom, frantically locking the door behind her and turning on the light.  Erin looked at her reflection in the mirror above the sink, holding back a sob as she hid her face in her hands. All the things she did back in LA to survive left a scar on her mind and there was nothing she could do to make them go away; she could deny that there was nothing there, but that wouldn't make them leave. She saw them when she closed her eyes, their faces were always there; constantly reminding her that everything she did was real.

Bringing herself to look up once more, she started tugging on the ends of her hair before her eyes flashed to a pair of scissors next to her. Picking them up, she took one last look at herself before she started cutting pieces of her hair off until her hair that used to reach her chest now reached just under her chin.

She took a long and shaky breath as she looked at what she had done, it would take time getting used to but Erin knew that she would either cut her hair or her skin – for the sake of the children and her own health, she chose hair.

**_~#~_ **

The next day, Erin spent most of her time thinking – her headphones in her ears and blaring the loudest song she could find on her iPod into her ears, blocking out most of her thoughts. By the time she came back, she didn't bother going inside the house and made her way back to Abigail, climbing on board just as she saw the group sprinting towards the boat with Nick carrying Harry in his arms.

Confused, Erin paused her music and removed her headphones from her ears as she watched the group. "What the fuck did you guys do?"

Madison gave Erin a sideways glance. "Language, Erin, and we're taking the boy with us; they turned."

Just as Erin was about to speak up again, a gunshot stopped her and Seth came on board with his rifle pointed at Travis, causing Erin to get out her knife and charge towards Seth but was held back by Chris, causing Erin to bite hard into Chris's hand to release her, which worked and Erin charged towards Seth until he held his rifle directly at Erin's chest.

"Don't you fucking dare," Seth hissed, his fingers hovering over the trigger, ready to pull it whenever he wanted.

Erin's eyes narrowed, her grip on her knife tightening. "Oh, but I would," Erin hissed back.

Travis stepped in front of Erin, pushing her backwards. "Erin, stop it," he murmured into her ear but when she didn't move, he tried a different approach. "Stand down, Erin. I repeat; stand down."

Erin reluctantly brought her knife down, storing it back in her pocket before she stormed off to her room, slamming the door behind her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The episode where this chapter takes place is my favourite episode of the show so far, and I hope you guys liked it. I'm just counting the days until the show comes back; I need my weekly dose of Alicia and Nick and spending hours on Tumblr ain't doing it for me no more.


	3. Chapter 3

Erin sat on the couch at the back of Abigail, her eyes closed as she listened to the sound of the sea rushing past her. She wasn't sleeping per se, but she was slowly dosing off until she heard Alicia's voice. "There's no infected, all that stuff's just lying there."

"There's infected in the water," Madison answered.

"Well, we're not gonna swim."

Nick took the binoculars from Alicia, looking at the shore line. "It's a yard sale, I'll go."

"I'm with you," Chris piped in.

"If they're going, I'm going." Alicia nodded towards the shore.

Erin couldn't help but smile as she stood up. "You know I'm going, I'd be an idiot not to."

"No, listen to me, all of you. Look, if anything were to happen to you-"

Erin cut Madison off, shaking her head. "Madison, they have me, we'll be fine."

Madison sighed, finally giving in and allowing the group to go.

"Oh my god, this is gonna be so much fun! It's like shopping, but everything's free!" Erin clapped her hands happily, jumping up and down before grabbing her katana from inside and walking down the stairs towards the Zodiac.

Once arriving on the shoreline, Erin jumped out of the Zodiac and onto the beach, helping to pull the Zodiac further up the shoreline before running towards the luggage, barely hearing Daniel's words to stay within view. Picking up an abandoned backpack, Erin emptied the contents onto the sand before moving towards the suitcases with Alicia behind her.

Erin ripped opened one of the suitcases and the first thing she saw was a dark red and white cheerleading costume, bringing it out, she showed it to Alicia who was opening another suitcase. "I always wanted to be a cheerleader."

Alicia sighed, shaking her head as she looked between the costume and her best friend. "Erin, we need to find things we actually need, not things we want."

Erin stuck her tongue out at Alicia before stuffing the costume into her backpack. "Hey, I  ** _need_**  this! I'm keeping it so screw you."

The pair continued to laugh and chat over what they found in the various suitcases around them, throwing some frankly hideous clothes at each other and commenting about who should wear them, laughing the whole time. Once all the suitcases around them had been emptied, Erin grabbed her belongings and decided to go after Daniel, leaving Alicia behind.

It wasn't hard to find Daniel; she just needed to follow his voice. Once she caught up to him, the pair looked at the large sand dune in front of them, Daniel calling Chris's name while Erin looked around but found nothing, until they saw a figure running – no, sprinting – down the side of the dune towards them, falling over several times.

"Chris?!" Daniel called out, causing Erin to shake her head slowly as she watched the figure.

Erin's eyes squinted as she tried to get a better look at the figure. "Daniel, I don't think that's Chris..."

The figure came towards them to reveal that it was a woman, visibly exhausted and petrified as she collided with Daniel. "They're coming! They're coming! Run!"

Erin frowned towards the woman who was now behind her before looking back towards the horizon, noticing the large horde of infected. "Oh merde," Erin muttered to herself, grabbing her katana out of its holder. "Guys, we got company!" She called out to the others before running back towards the luggage and the rest of the group.

Just as Erin came back towards Chris and Alicia, the infected were already beginning to close in on the group. Daniel continued to fire shots at the infected but they weren't doing much, causing Erin to take a deep breath and fight off the infected with her katana, slashing at their throats and chests to keep them back. "I don't know about you guys but I'm getting a serious case of déjà vu here," Erin almost joked.

"This is no time for your wise cracks, Erin! We're gonna die here if you don't focus!" Chris shouted back at Erin, hitting an infected over the head.

Erin kept her mouth shut afterwards, shifting with the group towards the Zodiac until she was full on sprinting towards it, not wasting any of her energy on killing infected. Once she arrived at the Zodiac, she threw her backpack into it before doing the same with her katana and its holder.

She noticed Nick coming down the beach with Alicia, causing her heart to skip multiple beats inside her chest. Abandoning all thoughts, Erin wiped away the blood around Nick's mouth with the back of her hand and pressed a kiss to his lips. "You've got to stop scaring me like that, Clark."

Nick shook his head, his hands cupping Erin's cheeks as he pressed another kiss to her lips. "Nah, never."

Erin gave him a soft smile before allowing Alicia to have a reunion with her brother, moving her gaze towards the Zodiac and helped move it towards the water.

Once safely on board and the Zodiac moving towards the Abigail, Erin finally allowed herself to breathe properly but even with the oxygen in her lungs, she felt like she was either going to vomit or pass out; something that scared her a little. She'd never felt like that after an encounter with the infected – so why should she feel like this now?

Once she was safely back on board the Abigail, Erin slowly and shakily removed herself from everyone, muttering an excuse to the group as she did and walked below deck and towards her room, bringing her katana and her backpack with her. She sat down on her bed and took a few minutes to breathe heavily before leaving her things in her room to take a shower and remove the blood on her body and her clothes.

After her shower, Erin slowly dried herself and her hair before she dressed once more. She looked at herself in the mirror, her fingertips going over her skin gently before moving towards her stomach. Frowning to herself, she rolled up her shirt to see a small but fairly noticeable bump forming. Shaking her head, she quickly placed her shirt back down and almost ran out of the bathroom, trying to find Madison.

Erin found Madison back on the deck, watching the yellow raft drift behind the Abigail. "Madison, I think there's something wrong with me."

Madison turned towards Erin, her face turning cold as she properly looked at Erin, noticing how pale she looked. She placed a hand on Erin's forehead, checking her temperature but found nothing. "What's wrong, sweetheart? You don't look so good."

Erin slowly shook her head, feeling faint as she held onto Madison's arm. "I've been feeling a little lightheaded a lot, and my stomach hurts like I'm about to start my period but it never comes. I was thinking that it was just my body adapting to eating more than just energy bars but I saw this and I'm certain it's something else," Erin slowly raised her shirt once again and moved to one side to show Madison her bump. "I think I might be pregnant..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dUN DUN DUUUUUUNNNN.


	4. Chapter 4

_**TORTURE TRIGGER WARNING IN THIS CHAPTER – READER DISCRETION IS STRONGLY ADVISED.** _

* * *

Erin had snuck into Nick's room that night, not telling him her suspected pregnancy. She decided not to bring it up because she wanted to be sure of her pregnancy before she told anyone else besides Madison, she didn't want to get anyone's hopes up and have those hopes shattered if she found out that she wasn't actually pregnant.

By the time she woke up, the space beside her was cold and empty. Sitting up in bed, she sighed as she shook her head; thinking Nick was probably out on deck or something else. As she crawled out of bed, she heard loud voices speak upstairs and frowned; thinking that it was the middle of the night – far too late for anyone to really be awake and fighting.

Just as she had placed her t-shirt on and began tying her shoelaces, Erin heard a gunshot, causing her head to jerk up, her eyes widening. She remained frozen in place until she heard footsteps come towards her door and instantly got to her feet to find a place to hide.

Hiding in one of the closets, Erin placed a hand over her mouth to conceal her breathing and she almost got away with it until an alarm on her phone went off and the blaring sound of her ringtone filled the silent room. Realizing her phone was beside her foot, Erin attempted to shut it off but the door was opened and she was dragged out by her hair with such a level of force, she wondered if some of her hair was ripped off.

For the first time in what felt like years, Erin was terrified for her life. But she wasn't alone this time – she had an unborn child to protect and she would protect that baby with her life. Erin fought back as hard as she could and managed to get out of the grasp of one of the captors and tried to run towards the door but was blocked by another who forced her backwards into a chair and held her down.

"Where's Nick?" A pregnant woman asked; her eyes locked onto Erin's face.

Erin swallowed hard before shaking her head sternly. "I'm not telling you shit."

The woman – Vida – narrowed her eyes as she brought out a butterfly knife out of her pocket. "If you don't start talking, we're going to have some problems."

"Do your worst, bitch." Erin hissed through clenched teeth.

Vida took that threat as a challenge and brought out her pocket knife, forcing Erin's sleeve up to her elbow. Vida noticed the various self-harm scars littering Erin's forearm but continued to bring her knife towards Erin's scars. "You used to hurt yourself? This should be painless to you then."

Erin tried to force her arm out of Vida's grip but it was far too strong. Erin felt the blade connect with her skin and winced as the blade made a small cut across her wrist. Erin refused to let Vida see her in pain and refused to say a word as more small cuts were made on her wrists, but that obviously didn't satisfy Vida who moved onto one of Erin's scars and cut, causing Erin to fight harder to get away. Vida smirked, cutting more and more of Erin's scars until Erin broke and she screamed for it to stop.

"I don't know where he is! Please just stop!" She screamed, tears streaming down her cheeks. "He was gone when I woke up! Just please don't do this. I'm pregnant… and if my baby dies because of you, I will not stop until I have hunted every one of you down and make sure you die a slow and painful death, do we have an understanding?"

Neither of them spoke but nodded towards each other before pushing Erin off the chair. Erin was escorted upstairs and forced to sit down on the floor beside Chris, visibly shaking and pale from what had happened to her and blood loss. Madison tried to help her but was held back by Reed, she mouthed "baby okay?" towards Erin, to which Erin nodded her head.

Erin didn't remember what happened over the next few hours, her mind drifted in and out of reality and wonderland; to the point where she couldn't tell what was real and what wasn't. She knew what was happening; it was a direct affect after being through serious trauma and losing so much blood. She knew she was slowly dying, that was certain. She wanted to speak up but no words came out of her mouth, she didn't even know if she  _ **could**_  speak.

The sounds of gunshots brought Erin back, waking her brain up and made her focus on what was going on. Her ties were cut by Chris and she slowly moved her hands and arms as she rose to her feet to see Nick in front of her. A weak smile came onto Erin's lips as she saw Nick in the doorway, a hand shakily reaching out to him as she took a few steps towards him. "Nick," she whispered before she collapsed to the ground. Erin felt like she was floating. She vaguely heard people's voices but they felt so far away, like they were in another room; that was when everything went black, and Erin heard nothing of the world around her.

When Erin opened her eyes, the sun was high in the skies and she was in Nick's arms, her head resting on his chest. He was fast asleep with his steady heartbeat as her only reminder that he was real and he was really there. Sitting up, she noticed her arm bandaged up but no longer drenched in her own blood.

Pushing herself off the bed, Erin slowly and shakily walked out of her room, a hand resting on the walls to steady her. Along the way, she saw Chris and stopped in front of him. "Are they dead? Those people who came here," she asked, her voice low.

Chris shook his head, resting a hand on Erin's shoulder to steady her swaying. "No, the woman got away but the asshole – Reed – is still here."

Erin nodded once, not bothering to shake Chris's hand off her; it felt comforting instead of annoying. "Will you do something for me?"

"What do you want me to do?"

"I want you to kill Reed, make him suffer for what he and that bitch did to me," Erin's voice shook a little as her mind reminded her of what she had been through; knowing that she almost died earlier that day all because she was Nick's girlfriend. She didn't hate Nick for that, no, she hated the monsters who tortured her for it.

Chris took a long time to answer but he slowly nodded his head. "I'll do it."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've decided to combine episode four and five into this one chapter for obvious reasons but things will get back to normal next chapter so I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. New brotp discovered; Chris and Erin – thoughts?
> 
> If you saw the parallels between this chapter and chapter three of Love Me to Pieces, then you get extra brownie points and more love from me.


	5. Chapter 5

Erin’s wounds were healing but she needed to be kept inside a near constant coma-like state to make sure she’d make a full recovery. She’d talked a little to Chris and Nick but she didn’t say much, talking took up too much of the energy she no longer had. She needed to give her energy towards her unborn child – that’s all that mattered to Erin. There were so many things she wanted to say but she didn’t know how to say them, or she had already said them; therefore, they’ve lost all their meaning.

Erin was in Nick’s room, as usual. Sleeping but could somewhat hear a little of the outside world, but it was mostly Nick’s talking. She’d requested him to stay with her and tell her stories about anything – whether they were real or made up, she just wanted to hear his voice, so it would drown out some of the noise inside her head.

Madison came down below deck, looking distressed and calling for Nick. Nick excused himself and walked to his door, opening it. “Are we there yet?” He asked, looking between Madison and Erin.

“Not even close.” Madison replied.

“What’s going on?”

“We have to hide, get Erin.”

“But she’s asleep-”

“Then carry her while she’s still asleep or wake her up, and hurry.”

Nick nodded before moving back into his room to where Erin was sleeping soundly while wearing one of his shirts, it was a bittersweet sight. As carefully as possible, Nick woke Erin up enough to make her somewhat aware of what was happening before picking her up bridal style to bring her into the engine room with everyone else, Alicia taking hold of Erin’s hand and keeping an eye on her while her ears were focused on what was going on outside the engine room.

Erin was somewhere halfway between sleep and being awake; she was awake enough to know what was going on but just enough asleep to close her eyes and block everything out. As soon as the gunshots were heard, however, Erin’s eyes snapped open and she was on high alert, ready to fight.

Madison noticed Erin bolt upright, eyes wide. She shook her head. “Erin, no. You need to rest, okay?”

Erin froze for a moment before slowly bringing herself to her feet and she held onto Nick who pressed a kiss to the side of her head. He whispered that he “would be back in a second” before he disappeared back on deck with everyone else, leaving Erin alone in the engine room.

She **_wanted_** to fight. It was part of who she was now, it almost ran in her blood by then. She seemed to have a natural impulse to protect and fight whoever was trying to hurt her family – that instinct only seemed to be heightened by the fact that she was carrying a child.

Slowly walking up the stairs, Erin looked at the bodies on the deck, her head slowly shaking in disbelief before she turned on her heels and walked back down below deck and to her own bed.

**_~#~_ **

On land, Erin walked beside Nick as the group made its way along the dusty path, trying to focus on walking but a mixture of the heat and her tiredness was making her almost delirious. Even in a lose fitting tank top, shorts and plimsolls, she was sweating profusely, and she knew she needed to rest soon.

The group finally arrived at an abandoned church, Erin’s eyes darted around the area, unsure of everything. She was right to be weary, a large group came towards them from the side of the church. Erin watched the infected come towards the group; she unsheathed her katana but kept behind Nick, her hand linked with his.

Nick released Erin’s hand to fight off an infected woman and that was when Erin’s fight mode kicked in. Pushing aside her tiredness and deliriousness, she removed her backpack and quickly beheaded an infected man before moving onto someone else, completely ignoring the fact that her face and shirt were getting covered in blood – all that mattered was that she killed every single infected that came her way.

Almost all to quickly, it was all over, and Erin was surrounded by dead bodies, standing in the middle of them, slightly dazed and completely breathless but unharmed.

“We have to go! Now!” Strand shouted, and Erin snapped her head towards her forgotten backpack and ran towards it, placing her katana back into its sheath in the process.

Picking up her backpack, she almost threw it into the back of the pickup truck and jumped onto it as the pickup truck sped off into the direction of Thomas’ estate.

Sitting in the back, Erin closed her eyes and enjoyed the feeling of the wind through her hair. She felt at peace for the first time in a while, but she knew that the feeling wouldn’t last. She was filled with war and hatred, and any chance of peace wouldn’t be an easy thing to achieve.

As soon as the truck arrived, Erin was whisked away inside to have a shower and go straight to her room to relax. After her much-needed shower, Erin sat on her bed, staring out of the doors that opened into the extensive property.

She still couldn’t quite believe how quickly her life had changed. It felt like only yesterday that she was just an ordinary high school student; worrying about her exams and trying to balance her school life with her social life.

But look at her life now; all her friends, her family and everyone she ever knew from her old life was gone. All she had left was the Clark family and they were her family now – whether she liked it or not.

Lying back on the bed, Erin stared up at the plain ceiling before she slowly drifted off to sleep, a hand resting on her stomach as she drifted into unconsciousness. Her dream was a nightmare – like usual but this time, it was truly disturbing, even to Erin. It was her world but something seemed... off. She looked older, but she could tell that she was still deeply troubled. She was in a cottage that was surrounded by infected and she knew she needed to get out but something was stopping her. A small child clung around her leg, refusing to let go. **_Alexa_** , she thought, **_my little Alexa_**. She knew that it was her daughter, but she had to force the child off her leg and hand her crying form over to Alicia who was escaping through the basement. Erin couldn't go, but she didn't know why until it dawned on her; **_she's infected_**.

Erin turned towards Alicia who had aged a lot too, her long dark hair was darker and a lot shorter than it used to be. "Tell Alexa how much I loved her, show her all the photos and make sure she won't forget me."

"I promise, Erin. I love you," Alicia replied nodding her head as she was fighting back the tears.

Erin simply nodded, not answering Alicia before closing the hatchet and placed the carpet back over it, hearing the infected break through a window and later a door. Out of her holder, Erin brought out her pistol – the same one her parents had left her all those years before and aimed it at the side of her head and just as she was about to hear the gun go off, she woke up screaming.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long, I’ve been focusing on my fanfic for The Enemy and it’s been taking up a lot of my time – don’t think I’m abandoning this story; I’m not, I promise! I will finish this story – it might just take me a while. I also did a film course for a few months and had almost no time for writing but thankfully, I’ve completed it and I’m back writing pretty much full time once again.  
> Anyways; I am finally 20 (my birthday was on the 17th August yay me) – I have left the realm of teenage-hood behind and I’m now somewhat an adult. I just have one question; who in their right mind let me adult? I cannot adult. I don’t even know how an oven works. Like, that should be a dead giveaway that I should never ever be allowed to adult.


End file.
